There is a famous Chinese TV show named “A Native of Beijing in New York”. It starts with a monologue by saying “If you love him bring him to New York, for it’s heaven; If you hate him bring him to New York, for it’s hell.” In this semester, I could understand this sense of mixed emotion. I sometimes swing between the hostility stage and gradual adjustment stage (Le Gros, 2010). On one hand, I’m facing a lot of practical issues which drive me crazy. On the other hand, I’ve gradually got familiar with the life here. I could figure out the situation easier than before. Still, new feelings and reflections emerge regularly. The most remarkable thing is I kind of get great improvement on my English writing.
I frequently go to writing center for my assignment since writing is my short coming. I work hard for my English writing, but it seems no big improvement so far. I still struggling with grammar mistakes. I always find difficulty to write a complex sentence. Few weeks ago I accidentally met Sam who is a ESL writing tutor. He understands Mandarin. After read my paper, he directly pointed out some of my sentences were obviously constructed in Chinses, such as “There has/have…”. Moreover, he emphasized that the importance of writing is be easily understood and followed. The way to make readers understand is to keep the content consistent. So, using transitions is the best way to put variety ideas together. Such comments kind of woke me up.
First of all, I know I write in “Chinglish” sometimes, but I do not know the exactly point. Before I met Sam, “there has” is my favorite sentence pattern. I even don’t know this pattern is not a native writing way. Furthermore, I am unable to think of my writing out of the box. I know what I’m talking about, but I neglect to think on readers’ perspective. I often jump my sentence from describe one concept to another without using transition words. Thus, the readers probably find difficulty to follow me.
After the first meet, I booked one time slot every week to work with Sam for my writing. Moreover, Sam provides me a niche targeting problem each time, which I should work out more for the following weeks. For example, apart from “transitions”, the focal point of my writing this week would be “verb tense”, “the using of ‘the’ and ‘a/an’”. By pointing out of the goal, I emphasize on using transitions to connect the context. In addition, once I finished my writing, I will proof read the whole content, especially focus on verb tense and the using of “the” and “a/an”.
Apart from writing per se, above mentioned case also reflects my learning style. It makes me rethink my learning process. As being an international student, I have a lot of things to learn, from knowledge to the way of thinking, from classroom technology to educational style. I feel overwhelming since I eager to get everything done shortly. From this case, I came aware that figure out a key point and concentrate the effort one by one is the most efficient way. For example, I’m at the beginning stage of my discipline. I frustrate by unable to provide an in-depth and comprehensive view of point toward an article or theory from time to time since I lack of knowledge and experience. In other words, I’m often going around outer-ring without get to the point. So my vital mission is to find out the key point of an article and then target shooting on it. I could focus on qualitative analysis rather than quantitative one. In the other words, catch one point of each article and give a comprehensively analysis.
In addition, I expand this case to think of the educational social network. The more I get approach to the discipline, the more I feel that the academic social network is quite influential. In the U.S., every discipline offers regularly seminar, workshop to the practitioners. These provide an opportunity to newbies to get in touch with the people inside the field. Moreover, these events provide a platform to get the latest news and information regarding the field. Such things play as a “transitions” in the writing. It connected the people with people, ideas to ideas. It could help me for a better understanding of the field. Moreover, as expecting to be an insider, I have to show my ability to insiders. These events provide a platform to make connection to insiders and get people to pay attention. For instant, my department held “career showcase” events in Feb which provide me a map of the career path.
Apart from above, I would like to mentioned slightly about the way Sam encourages me. His teaching style is quite motivated. He always trying to point out my error by providing hints and let me figure out myself. Moreover, whenever I provided my feedback, he often replied by “good job”, or “I did not even think of that”. Sometime he even express with an exaggerated look. Alderman (2008) documented in his book that the optimal motivation fostered from best degrees of autonomy or ownership. Sam’s teaching style aligned with the textbook. This also remind me that as a student of Educational Psychology which related strongly with humanity, I can get quite a lot real world sample from observing people and analysis behaviors of people around me. Study is far beyond learning from only text book and article. It is a thing to read something in a text book, it is another thing to see it for real. I can get new discovery through daily life and reflect to my academic learning from text book. I could be benefited by converting to and from classroom learning and real life observing.
To sum up, I’ve became more confidence in this semester since I gradually familiar with the rules and the convention of the U.S. A few of things I need to carry over. First, regularly see the writing tutor which focus on one particular problem each time. Second, I will need to sort out the focal point whenever feeling overwhelming. Last, keep observing the life and people around me. I could foster my learning from text book and convert theory to practice.
Reference
Alderman, M. K. (2015). Motivation for achievement. Place of publication not identified: Routledge.
Gros, N. L. (2009). Communication strategies for international graduate students surviving and thriving in Canadian academia. London, Ont.: Teaching Support Centre, University of Western Ontario.